GUJRAT: Wazirabad police have found the dead body of a policeman lying in a field near Wadala Cheema village who was allegedly kidnapped and tortured to death by the unidentified workers of the proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) on Sunday night when he was returning home after performing his duty.

Police said Constable Adnan Ahsan Butt, a resident of Wahdat Colony, Gujranwala, was kidnapped by some unidentified TLP workers and later tortured to death even after an agreement reached between the government and the proscribed party last Sunday when former chairman of the Ruet-i-Hilal Committee Mufti Muneeb arrived at Wazirabad and addressed the sit-in participants.

A spokesman for Gujranwala police said they were informed on Monday by a local farmer, Ghulam Mustafa, of Wadala Cheema village along Bharoki road in Wazirabad Saddar police precincts, about the body of an unidentified man, aged 30 to 35 years, lying in his fields.

Acting on the information, a police party reached the spot and shifted the body having torture marks to the hospital for an autopsy.

Claim the atrocity was committed even after agreement with govt

The body was later identified as of constable Butt, he added.

He said the constable was returning from Wazirabad after performing his security duty when he was kidnapped and tortured to death by some TLP workers on Oct 1 night. He said it seemed the killers removed the uniform of the deceased constable, clad his body in shalwar qameez to conceal his identity and threw it in the field.

A case has been lodged against the unidentified killers under section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the report of the owner of the field from where the body was recovered.

The city police officer has constituted a team under Gujranwala investigation SSP Syed Ali to further probe into the matter.

The martyred cop was survived by a widow and a minor daughter, the spokesperson said.

His funeral prayers were first offered at Gujranwala Police Lines and then in Wahdat Colony, where he resided. He was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard on Tuesday evening.

Traffic restored

The vehicular traffic was restored on the bridge on River Jhelum on Tuesday after authorities removed the containers parked there and filled the trenches dug up on the GT Road at Sara I Alamgir to prevent the participants of the proscribed TLP’s march on Islamabad.

However, the old and new bridges on River Chenab near Gujrat city are still closed for the traffic due to the ongoing TLP sit-in at Wazirabad.

The TLP had shifted the sit-in from the GT Road to the Nizamabad Park of Wazirabad on Monday, but authorities had yet to remove obstacles placed on Chenab bridges. However, pedestrians and motorcyclists have allowed to cross these bridges.

The internet and landline phone services have also been restored in the area on Tuesday after remaining suspended for the last one week.

An official privy to the security arrangements told Dawn that normalcy was being restored gradually in Gujrat and Jhelum towns and the situation might get normal within the next 12 to 24 hours as release of TLP chief Saad Rizvi was expected on Wednesday, as announced by Mufti Muneebur Rehman at Wazirabad sit-in on last Sunday.

He said all the alternate routes in the district had been reopened for the traffic.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2021